Amber Comer and Rey Lira, both students at Lamar High School, were selected by the SDS board of directors to receive $500 for the 5th anniversary from the Walter Ely Scholarship Fund. The official presentation was held Monday, May 18, at the Southeastern Developmental Services offices on South 4th Street in Lamar.

SDS Board with Scholarship Winners

Each of the students were required to submit a 1,000 work essay as to why they deserved the scholarship, set up five years ago to honor the memory of Walter Ely, who was well known in the Lamar area for his untiring efforts to collect discarded beverage cans which were turned into cash for the SDS clients. Executive Director, Kim Engsburg, had mentioned some time ago that the can collection never ended, and the scholarship funds have become somewhat self-sustaining since that time.

Amber Comer has her college career already marked out and said she’s attending college in Texas. “I’m attending West Texas A & M and I’ll be majoring in animal science and. The scholarship will help pay for my education as I’m going for my Bachelor’s. The funds will also be used for room, tuition and textbooks.”

Rey Lira, also from Lamar, is heading to Colorado Springs as he was accepted to the Air Force Academy. Although the tuition is taken care of in return for his commitment to the Air Force on graduation, Lira said he’ll use the funds to help pay for his textbooks and some of the military-based items he’ll need to attend. As far as his future was concerned, the young man stated, “I’ll graduate as a Second Lieutenant and I’m going to major in some form of engineering, and I expect I’ll have a clearer picture of how I want to use my education in the future.”